I have a nephew transferring out to Seattle from the East Coast soon. Any thoughts on highly competitive Seattle area teams (17/18)?

www.bankersbaseball.com

www.chaffeybaseball.com

baden baseball, taylor, and many others

Thank you very much! That'll give him a great start. -Monty-

Baseball Northwest is probably the premier group from that region. Other goods ones I'm familiar with from that region would include the Seattle Bombers, Baden Baseball, Laces Baseball, South Sound Riptide, and I'm forgetting a couple other pretty good programs.

Did you get my PM?

Yea I played with Baseball Northwest this past weekend in the Pacific Northwest Championships, and although there werent many college coaches watching our c/o 2010 games, I saw a lot of college coaches and pro scouts watching the 2008s.

Double-check Taylor.....have heard they got slapped with serious penalties by the league......ask around at the www.tacomabaseball.com forum.

PM DowBaseball.....he played on a very nice team this summer (-:

What kind of serious penalties are you talking about? I've followed this organization for many years and have heard there never been problems with Taylor Baseball. They usually have the best team in the area with the best coaching staff. I know they lost 3 players this summer going in the draft. To my knowledge all 3 have signed and are now playing pro ball.

Taylortook a guy from another younger team during the season witout any prior notice to the coaches...that younger team's coach practically runs Connie Mack...you do the math from there...they were banned from playing in Connie Mack for a few years.

This is off original topic but non-the less interesting. I am in no way connected to Taylor Baseball, or CM for that matter, however, I am very aware that Taylor players have more of an opportunity to be seen by college recruiters, scouts etc. than most other teams in the region. I agree it can be unfortunate and frustrating for the team and coaches to lose players to (some would argue) a better program. We all have to ask ourselves what is best for that player and his family. If my son were asked to join an elite team with great coaches and a following from colleges, my son and I would have to consider the move. As far as CM black listing Taylor or any team that plays them for 3 years is absurd, there is nothing accomplished by that, except 1 less quality team (15-20 players) in a youth baseball league. It has to be about the player not the coaches. If a player wants to play for another team, so what, get him out of there!

Its about how the player switched teams. The league has very explicit player tampering instructions and consequences. Taylor never took the proper steps to elevate the player to their team. They took him off of the Presidents 16U team. Of course they were going to get blacklisted. Its too bad but they have history of doing this and if they can't follow the rules, they should be penalized.

By the way, I don't feel like Taylor gets any more exposure than any other CM team that travels.

I understand the rules of player tampering. It's my opinion it should not be a rule, if a player has a better opportunity or is unhappy with a team, he should be allowed to move. The quote below was pulled from the WSBL web site with their mission statement. I am still trying to figure out how this rule helps provide a platform to showcase young ball players if they are not allowed to play; likely the most important years of their baseball lives.

The beginning of the Mission Statement posted on the WSBL website:

"The mission of this organization is to provide a platform for young baseball players to be showcased for college and professional scouts. Washington State Baseball League provides assistance to players in the form of coaching, placement, and traditional regimen of baseball discipline".

I was assuming Taylor players got more exposure than some other teams as I was under the impression that college recruiters are often at Taylor’s and a few other select team’s home games, that is why many teams like to play them at home.

You don't understand. Teams must go through a specific channel and series of steps to take a player from another team. After October 10th, roster are frozen and you cannot change teams without going through these steps. Taylor did not go through the steps and has done this for years. The league cracked down on them and any other team that was doing the same. There were more teams out there, but they went through the proper sequence to get the player to switch teams. What has happened is coaches have recruited players from the 3rd base coaching box. They have recruited players after games. Everyone trying to take everyone elses best players. The kid that went to Taylor was the starting SS on his other team. He was arguably the best player on his team. That really hurt the other team when he left. He has a responsibility to finish the season with the team he signed up with. He wasn't unhappy, he thought it would be a better situation for him in the long run. I agree, but you have to take the proper steps to get released and then resign with another team. You can't just jump ship for greener pastures. That is why the rule is enforced.

Taylor plays all their games at home because they basically refuse to travel. They will only play at their home field unless it is a tournament. That is why they play at home. They do get a lot of exposure based on the quality of players that have come through the organization and they have a good coaching staff. But they only play home games.

I would have to disagree with you about Taylor playing all their games at home. Please look at their schedule and you can see they played a bunch of games away. These were games not part of any tournament. www.taylorbaseball.com

The games that are shaded are part of tournaments. Otherwise, they played probably 90% at BCC and UW. Those are their home fields.